The majority of new state of the art pacing and defibrillation leads incorporate multi-strand cables as primary conductors through the body of the lead. Such cables are non-stretchable and, as a result, are prone to premature fatigue failure in portions of a lead subject to repeated bending or sharp bends (e.g., lead connectors). The incidence of primary conductor failure due to bending stress tends to increase with the number of conductor cables employed in a lead.
There is a need in the art for a lead configuration that reduces the bending stress failure rate of multi-strand cable conductors employed as primary conductors in leads. There is also a need in the art for a method of using and manufacturing such a lead configuration.